A lifestyle blog about me.

Is Grand Theft Auto sexist?

As a casual gamer (or should I say gay-mer), I have noticed a common trend in the video game industry. Women in video games are often not created equal to men. Their uses during storylines, outfits, and all too often being sexualized makes life for women in the video game industry very difficult.

I would not consider myself an expert gamer per se. However being somebody who has played video games since I was a child, I have had my fair share of experiences.

From fighting games, RPGs, racing games, to first person shooters I have seen various storylines in many different games. One of the most popular gaming franchises ever made, Grand Theft Auto has been in households all around the world since 1997.

Grand Theft Auto’s distinctive feature is not limited to one, large sandbox worlds, the ability to free roam and commit any crime desired, and also the well-developed fun as hell storylines make the franchise a knockout. There is one issue that I have noticed that if fixed can make the franchise better in my opinion.

GTA has had a long list of titles throughout the years. I have not played every title so I can only speak from experience. Total I have played 5 different GTA titles, GTA V being the latest release. One observation that I made early on is the fact that every single games main character is male.

Even GTA V, which features three main characters for the first time, has an all-male cast. I find this very odd since this limits the possibilities of new storyline potential. At some point the franchise is going to become dry, especially if we keep seeing characters that are relatively the same (CJ from GTA San Andreas vs Franklin from GTA V). I personally think having a women step up to the main stage could bring a new experience to the game.

New personalities, new prejudices, new missions to deal with, new things to do are all possible benefits that we could see. Why can’t we have a women take down a gang after the leader made a comment because she’s a women, and why can’t we have an option to choose outfits based off their functionality (heels vs sneakers or boots). Introducing a women as a main character could reap a lot of benefits to the game.

Let’s not look at the main characters now, lets look at women in the game now. Women in general don’t play a big part in the GTA storylines. Occasionally you may see one female play a slightly important role that isn’t causing a lot of trouble. You are only likely to see that in one out of many games, the only one I can recall myself is Catalina from San Andreas.

Apart from that, the women of GTA are nothing more than background objects or toys to play with. The women who aren’t pedestrians get the glorified job of being a prostitute that the main character can pick up, have their way with, and then kill them if they chose so.

I’m not expecting Rockstar to make an all-female empowering video game just to satisfy me or people who agree. That wouldn’t match up to the look and feel of the GTA theme of crude comedy and insults. However if GTA were to implement a female with a strong story role that isn’t just sex or in the background I think the franchise would be so much better!

Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? Let me know by commenting below!